CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Transport Corporation has received 30 chassis, which are to be sent to various Transport Corporations , including its own unit in Chromepet.

Fleet strength

MTC sources said that as part of its efforts to increase the fleet strength, the Corporation would get a total of 230 new buses in the first phase and it has received the first lot of 30.

All of them would be regular buses and there are no vestibule buses in the latest lot, the sources said.

A total of 15 chassis have been sent to the MTC's bodybuilding unit at Chromepet, where the deluxe bus versions are being built.

The remaining half in the first lot would be sent to the bodybuilding units of other State Transport Corporation services in Villupuram, Kancheepuram, Salem, Karur and Vellore. In order to complete the work quickly, the chassis are being sent to other corporations, they said.

The new buses would be painted with poly-urethene paint, which does not fade easily.

The duration for building the body for a bus depends on the availability of materials such as mild steel channels, angles and aluminium side sheets and tops.

Once the materials are on hand, the bus can be rolled out in 30 days.

However, in the present scenario, it would take a little longer to complete the bodybuilding works within a month as the arrival of required materials would take sometime, the sources said.

In the existing conditions the new buses would roll out of the bodybuilding units in the first week of November only, the sources said.

Yellow and blue lines

With the arrival of new buses in November, the authorities are also planning to introduce two new services Yellow and Blue Lines.

While the yellow line service would be operated between two destinations without stopping anywhere, the blue line would have four or five stops totally between two destinations, the sources added.